Have you ever felt that way in the office? Over the course of my career, I’ve learned that on occasion there will be days when things just don’t seem to break your way. Andre Agassi, one of the most dominant tennis players of his generation once captured this sentiment after a match saying, “It’s a delicate juggling act to try to balance everything in your life on and off the court, negotiate your health, everything that goes into being your best at every stage. It feels substantially different.”

While the unique pressure facing a professional athlete isn’t quite the same as most of our professional pressures, the reality is we all now live in a ‘multiple’ world. We have multiple job responsibilities and deadlines we’re expected to balance at once, multiple colleagues and teams with whom to collaborate, increasingly across multiple time zones or geographies.

Of course, CIOs are quite possibly the ultimate multi-taskers, simultaneously responsible for both supporting the day-to-day operations of the business and driving massive, strategic technology initiatives that drive top-line growth. As a marketer tasked with taking BMC’s message to CIO and IT professionals, I often find myself asking “what is the thing that keeps CIOs up at night?” And of course, the answer is everything. Managing through the complexity and knowing how to ‘return serve’ when the business volleys a new challenge to IT is part of the job. That’s a big reason why we take great pride in helping IT pros lighten the load, however and wherever possible. Because when your job description requires the ability to ‘juggle’ we think finding the right strategic IT partner is an important part of keeping the balls in the air.

I thought about the acronym BYOD (bring your own device), and it sounded so familiar. Oh, yeah. It reminded me of BYOB— the common phrase that appears at the end of party invitations about what you need to bring and possibly share. So, what does that have to do with BYOD and mobile device management? I thought you’d never ask.

Now, apply this concept to bringing food to a party. Imagine inviting a group of guests and they each brought whatever they wanted — a potluck. But you didn’t know until they arrived what they chose. You didn’t ask them in advance. So you wound up with five desserts and six servings of chips and dip — not enough to feed a hungry group of people who want burgers, chicken, and fries. The whole party process just wasn’t centralized and managed effectively. People didn’t have access to all of the varieties of food they expected to eat. They left early in search of a fast food restaurant to satisfy their hunger. As the host, you’d be disappointed, especially when there are much better ways of managing the menu for such an event.

So, where does BYOD come in? First, think about the notion of bringing your personal device, such as a smartphone or tablet, to work. You want centralized access to the network from your device, but the network may not know who you are. As a result, you can’t satiate your hunger for access to the applications to do your job. It’s frustrating and slows you down. So, just like the host of the party who doesn’t know what people are bringing, and therefore can’t give them the positive experience they expect, IT struggles with supporting end users who drop in with personal devices and expect the same level of service as with their corporate devices.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. With mobile device management technology, your IT organization can manage personal devices with the same standards as any other corporate-owned device. By integrating the management of these devices into your service desk solution, IT can support personal devices without driving up costs. IT can allow people to bring their own devices to work while still protecting the organization from risk with a well-defined policy and effective supporting technology. BMC’s Jason Frye discusses how to make this happen in this article, “BYOD, the mobile workforce, and you.”

Spend more than a few minutes speaking with a tech industry veteran about accomplished leaders – men or women – and it’s likely you’re going to hear Cindy Reese’s name mentioned. As Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Oracle, Cindy is a dynamic leader with more than 25 years of experience. Among her many accomplishments, after joining Oracle from Sun in 2010 Cindy led a significant and ambitious transformation project in high tech, completely revamping Sun’s supply chain resulting in millions of dollars of savings by reducing freight costs, excess inventories and other inefficiencies. This type of leadership, business acumen and foresight has helped Cindy become one of the most respected female leaders in technology.

To conclude our celebration of Women in Tech throughout the month of March, Cindy graciously agreed to share with us her perspective on leadership and working in the high tech industry.

At what point in your life did you decide that a career in the technology industry was the right path for you?

I was lucky enough to be accepted into a high tech program for high school students at Flextronics when I was 16. Flextronics gave me the opportunity through a rotational program to learn every role in manufacturing of high tech printed circuit boards. I was hooked from that point forward. What I fell in love with was the constant change required to stay relevant in the high tech industry.

Can you tell us about a female leader that you admire or look up to who positively contributed to your success?

Unfortunately, I did not have any female role models or leaders in my work environment in the early days of my career. Women were non-existent in manufacturing back then. My mother was my female role model. She taught me to be independent, voice my opinions and drive for success in everything I did.

Having the courage to ask for help in a male-dominated industry was difficult for me. I looked at it as a sign of weakness and tried to figure everything out on my own. I later learned from a male role model that not asking for help was holding me back. He taught me to step up, work outside my box and take risks.

What advice do you have for young women that aspire to executive and leadership roles, particularly in industries such as tech that are still heavily male dominated?

My advice to young women is:

Stretch yourself to deliver results and surpass expectations – The biggest thing holding you back is you!

Don't wait for something to come to you – Know what you want and go for it.

Build your network – Having a good network of supporters is key to growth.

Earlier this month, Kim DeCarlis posted about Women’s History Month, discussing valuable lessons she has learned on her journey as a successful woman in technology. We caught up with some other impressive female leaders in the industry to learn more about what influenced their careers and lives as inspirational women in their fields.

Today, we want to recognize one of our distinguished colleagues, Hollie Castro. Hollie is the Senior Vice President of Administration for BMC Software and manages the company’s global human resources department, community and government relations programs and global real estate activities. Having joined BMC in 2009 after holding leadership positions at Talisman-Energy, Cisco Systems and General Electric, her contributions are felt by thousands of BMC employees around the world.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Hollie to hear more about her career experiences, as well as the advice she would offer young women just entering the workplace.

At what point did you decide that a career in HR was the right path for you?

I didn’t actually know much about HR as a career. After finishing my MBA I was interviewing for global sales jobs. I had two offers to consider. Then, a job posting came across for GE’s executive HR rotational program. I’d been the teaching assistant for three Leadership Courses during my MBA Program, and I loved the subject matter. The job description was very similar to what we’d learned; however, I applied and was promptly rejected as my background did not fit the normal model. A few weeks later, I got a call from the head of HR for one of GEs biggest divisions. He said, “I know we rejected you, but would you consider moving to Italy for the HR rotation program”...the rest is history.

Can you tell us about a female leader that you admire or look up to who positively contributed to your success?

I worked with a woman named Kate DCamp at Cisco, who was instrumental in my growth. She pushed me to do things I didn’t think I could do and was open with me about her successes and failures. She didn’t pretend to be a man; she was authentic. I owe her a debt of gratitude.

What advice do you have for young women that aspire to executive and leadership roles, particularly in industries such as tech that are still heavily male dominated?

I always answer this question in the same manner. Women can have it all, but my belief is not at the same time. Many women want to have a sky-rocketing career at the same time they are solidifying a marriage and having a family. Something almost always gives. If the career is successful, it’s the marriage or the kids. So my advice is pace your life plan.

Secondly, you don’t have to act like a man. Part of what we bring as women is the innate sixth sense about human beings that we derived from our maternal instincts. I see young women trying to emulate men too much.

Lastly, be clear about your values and take risks. I did a lot of work around my values to ensure I was clear about what was most important to me and how those values were prioritized, then, from there I made choices that got me closer to my goals. Many of those choices involved taking risks. I’ve moved 14 times in the last decade. Each move was a part of my plan. And the plan has lots of room for flexibility when circumstances change. I’m not saying people have to move locations, but taking risks and making bold career moves are essential to success.

As I looked through the list of special holidays this year, I was surprised to learn that March 20th is the official day designated to commemorate abductions from outer space. And, why not celebrate this phenomenon? It’s so popular that many of the exciting new movies being released this year are all about invaders from space. So, how can we best be prepared for these unexpected visitors in case they are not as friendly and well dressed as the extraterrestrial couples on the TV program, The Neighbors? My first thought was to get more information from someone who, when in high school, would be voted by peers as the person “Most likely to communicate with extraterrestrials.” Where could I find such a person?

I glanced at the stars in the sky and the idea came to me right away. I only needed to look as far as my corporate backyard. There was Chris Dancy, a director in the CTO Office at BMC, all wired up and ready to communicate with any type of species, no matter what planet those beings came from. Or so I thought. Chris is the ultimate quantified man. He sleeps with devices that track his heart rate, oxygen levels, and more. He also measures how far he walks, how much he eats, his digital reputation – the list goes on and on.

Chris explained to me that he’s way too busy to think about using technology to communicate with extraterrestrials, though; his focus is on measuring things that are more down to earth. In this article, he teamed up with Jason Frye to discuss how the quantified enterprise is about your relationship with the enterprise and the data you create. Learn how this approach provides a more empowered workforce. When you’re done reading, just like E.T., be sure to phone home and tell others about what you’ve discovered.

I can’t resist a bargain and recently got some bookcases, a cabinet, and a table. I knew they would look great in the house, and the prices were so reasonable. Oh, yeah, they all required assembly. Of course, when I selected those items, I had no intention of putting them together myself. After all, I can barely keep up with children when I struggle to assemble Legos designed for ages ten and above. I knew that my other half would volunteer to help, but he was also very busy. While he was quite capable of the task and enjoyed this type of work, I didn’t want to wait until he had a free weekend. That would have delayed the assembly for more than month. So, I considered hiring a handyman for the same reasons that people at work consider going around IT to get business services — a concept known as Shadow IT. It just seemed faster and easier.

Then I thought more about this challenge, which I’ll call Shadow Assembly, and imagined him walking into the house and finding the work had already been done without consulting him on the home project. So instead, I discussed my requirements and timeframe with him. He had good ideas about the assembly process and which handyman to use. Instead of going around the “expert,” I engaged him in the decision, and he provided some valuable suggestions related to outsourcing the project. I got the furniture on my timeframe, he didn’t have to give up a weekend, and the work met our requirements. We were both happy.

This type of pleasant outcome can be experienced in your organization when IT, as the expert, begins to think of external resources as a way to complement internal IT resources. In this article in VIEWPOINT, Shadow IT: Are You Solving Problem or Just Policing It?, BMC’s CIO Mark Settle explains how IT is in the best position to manage both internal and external resources and make recommendations based on user needs and business requirements. He describes how users should be encouraged to go through, rather than around, IT. He discusses how the BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management platform helps to bring IT out of the shadows by providing access to the public cloud for certain workloads while still maintaining management and control over these resources.

By maintaining a strong, positive relationship with your end users and being open to their ideas about how their needs are met, you have happy end users and happy IT.

Valentine’s Day is a good time to turn your thoughts to something “SaaSy” about the hot trends in IT for 2013. You gotta’ love the top four — social, mobile, analytics, and cloud — areas that the tech industry has affectionately referred to as SMAC. There’s just something about that acronym when you pronounce it that not even a mother could love. It sounds like “SMACK.” Why not mix up the order of the words and change this to CASM? Now, isn’t that much better? It is pronounced like “Chasm,” which is a gap that you can leap across from one technological breakthrough to another. Here’s my take on CASM in 2013.

Cloud. What’s not to love about the cloud? The market for cloud services continues to grow dramatically. So, if you haven’t sufficiently embraced the cloud by Valentine’s Day, it’s time to start getting more serious. But what type of cloud relationship are you looking for? This article by Herb VanHook helps you find the cloud that’s right for you — your perfect match.

Analytics. Have you ever described in great detail the many habits, traits, and actions about someone you love to a friend only to be told, “Hey, that’s too much information?" Who needs to process all that? Who cares? But your relationship with the data in your enterprise is a different story. The right analytics can help turn your data into more meaningful information related to performance management, capacity management, cloud operations, the end-user experience, and more. In this blog, BMC’s David Williams predicts that tools will emerge this year to identify end-user behaviors, trends, abnormalities, and performance degradations. Just as a strong love relationship improves over time, these resources will get to know you better and provide you with an enhanced end-user experience.

Social. Maybe you’ll send your Valentine a love message on Facebook, even posting it on your Web page for everyone to see that you’re in a special relationship. I’m sure people even propose to each other via Facebook — telling everyone at once of the engagement while hoping that the person says “yes” to the proposal. From a business perspective, social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Chatter, Twitter, and Google+ are the new spaces where we collaborate, communicate, learn, and socialize. They are becoming more integrated with the service desk, providing insight based on the experiences of your peers. Chris Dancy tells all about the relationship between the service desk and social in this article.

Mobile. If your mobile device had feelings, it would want to be appreciated on Valentine’s Day. After all, when was the last time you left home without your tablet or smartphone? You probably spend more time communicating with these tools than you do with your spouse or significant other. Think about it. How many times a day do you check a mobile device to look at email, read the news, visit social sites, perform calculations, play a game, manage your investments, purchase items, and more? The use of mobile devices has skyrocketed over the last few years, and it’s only going to expand. This trend, along with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work, is going to require IT to manage any device employees use to access the enterprise, whether it’s personally owned or provided by the business. Read about it in this article by Jason Frye.

These trends can help your relationship with technology to become even stronger and empower you to do more with the devices you use. Many of them are helping to consumerize the IT experience, meaning that the IT you use for business is becoming as intuitive as the technology you use in your personal life.

It’s like MyIT, the app that provides an easy-to-use interface to IT services and information anytime and from any location. MyIT knows who and where you are and can help you get access to the right technology resources quickly and easily.

As you get to know your technology better, it will learn to understand your needs, be there for you more than ever, and form a stronger relationship with you. Isn’t that worth celebrating on Valentine’s Day?

One of the first words a child learns is “mine.” That’s when children begin to understand what’s in it for them. Like IT. Your end users don’t want IT to be all about the technology. They want IT to deliver what they need at the right time and to use the device of their choice. They also want to decide how IT communicates with them. That’s about putting the “My” in MyIT. Yes, IT service delivery is getting personal…

What does this concept look like? Your end users may not have to fill out help tickets or stay on hold to have a call answered when they need assistance. They won’t have to wait until it’s convenient for IT to respond -- they can set up their own appointments to get help when they need it. When they show up at a satellite office, they won’t waste a lot of time trying to find out how to connect with a local printer. If they bring their own devices to work, they can access the network instantly. End users want the technology they use at work to be just as efficient as what they use in their personal lives. In short, the whole experience needs to be easy and transparent. These are some of the many benefits they can expect soon when MyIT from BMC becomes available.

You are likely to get inundated with ads for diets to help people lose weight (one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions).

Your health club, which was probably empty in December, will become crowded with people trying meet their other keyresolution – to exercise more frequently – and there will be a long line of people waiting to use the equipment.

You will see many articles and comments from analysts and other experts about what to expect in 2013. Some ideas will make sense immediately and others will seem like science fiction.

In keeping with this idea of looking ahead, be sure to read Eric Blum's article about social, mobile, analytics and cloud. He is BMC's CTO and Vice President for EMEA and discusses how these areas, affectionately known as SMAC, gained traction at the close of 2012 and where they are headed. He talks about how they will continue to challenge established IT practices and offers strategies for success. Read How to Embrace the Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud Wave with BSM. And then go to the health club or eat an apple.

One of my favorite books by Dr. Seuss is entitled, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” This inspirational book encourages readers to follow their dreams in the directions they choose and keep in mind that life is a balancing act.

So what does this have to do with IT? I started thinking about the innovative direction that MyIT from BMC provides. MyIT will offer enterprise users the same positive experience with IT at work that they have with the technology they use personally. MyIT offers that experience from any device and any location. It knows who you are and where you are. Some people may think of MyIT as their personal IT assistant. Others may think of MyIT as a new friend. Think about the places it will take you… and you will take it.

As I put on my “Seuss hat,” a nice hat at that, I thought about MyIT as I sat.

Oh, the places you’ll go with MyIT.Oh, the things you’ll see.

You’ll want IT information from any place or device.You’ll find it quickly and intuitively — so very nice!

You’ll have self-service, collaboration, social media, and more, Getting the right answers won’t be a chore.

Schedule appointments with IT at a time best time for you.Find local printers and servers without much ado.

Without so much as moving your feet,Alerts will arrive via Facebook or Tweet.

Know when issues will be resolved and taken care of just fine,Work anywhere with a mobile app — even when you dine.

I attended a fascinating event where industry leaders discussed the direction in which communicating with technology is headed. They talked about how your mobile device is rapidly becoming your new best friend, and as such, will begin to know more about you than you ever imagined. As voice recognition technology continues to improve, that device, which we’ll call “Sam” (after all — it’s like a person) may even begin to understand what’s deep inside your soul and respond accordingly to your questions.

Sam will always be there for you when you walk into a room full of strangers. If you aren’t feeling social, you can just pick him up and start to interact instead of conversing with others. That means there’s no more awkwardness of introducing yourself to people at a conference who might ask you a question about your company that you just don’t know how to answer. You ask Sam a question, and if all of the technology and data are aligned, Sam will be able to discern the difference between speech and intent and understand you. Sam will act more like you and, as a result, your relationship and dependence on him will grow.

We’ve seen the power of voice recognition — and some of us may even talk back to those devices in frustration when the GPS says to make a turn on the wrong street or slows down and says repeatedly, “I’m recalibrating.” We talk to Siri, we talk to our cars, and we may even argue with the robotic voices that help diagnose our problems over the phone. Yet with all of these advances, we’re still at the early stages of what voice recognition and behavior learning applications can achieve.

That brings me to the dog referenced in the title of the article. One speaker at the event brought something to my attention that went beyond voice recognition in terms of how mobile devices can become more in tune with you — eventually. What do you think that was? You guessed it: Smell. Just like a dog can recognize the scent of its owner, your mobile device may someday be able to recognize or understand you better based on how you smell.

Think about the ramifications of this special way to communicate with your smartphone. When do you synch up the application that recognizes your scent? After you run four miles on a hot day? Or after you take a shower? Instead of touching your finger to the keyboard, do you point the device under your arm? Yuck. What happens if you use the same cologne as someone who tries to log on as you? Or if you have way too much garlic before you try to access or interact with your device? These are some of the “deep” questions that would have to be explored if smell were to someday become a new way to interact with technology or access services online.

Seriously, though, if you can move beyond the idea of having your cell phone know you better than your spouse — and if you can get past the ick factor of smell-based contextual recognition — then you can focus on the impact that the proliferation of mobile devices already has on your company. Employees want to BYOD (bring your own device), and IT has to figure out how to support all those devices.

Some voice recognition technologies have already presented challenges to corporate IT. Organizations may require their users to deactivate them if the users want to leverage their device for work. That’s because of some of the devices can allow for access via voice commands and bypass the need to enter a passcode using the device’s keyboard. Many IT organizations have a long way to go when it comes to executing a complete and comprehensive mobile device management policy that takes into account the BYOD approach. The issues to tackle include identifying devices on the network and accessing email servers. They also include blocking unauthorized devices, setting up and managing enterprise app stores, and dealing with sensitive corporate data that’s mobile. If you’d like to learn more about mobile device management, visit http://www.bmc.com/mobility.

Maybe understanding individual scent has a way to go, but then again, are you ready to be the IT person in charge of ensuring that the “scent detector” is properly working on employees’ mobile devices? Now that might actually be a great job for a dog.

Excellence can take on many different meanings depending on your perspective. It can be a rating that indicates a level of superiority. For students, excellence is often rewarded with an “A” on a report card. An athlete who wins a gold medal is recognized for his or her excellence in a sport. Or excellence could refer to the quality of something that is exceptionally good – like my favorite brand of chocolate chip cookies.

However, since this is a technology blog, I’d like to shift the focus to excellence in data center automation. To drive efficiencies, automation requires developing and implementing effective processes.

BMC’s Ben Newton and Tim Fessenden discussed the concept of a Center of Excellence (COE) for the data center, and how this approach brings together talent from many disciplines to create and maintain automation best practices. They explained how business analysts, people in engineering and operations, as well in other groups, can work together to drive automation and business value. They also identified steps for building the center. Their article describes this approach in detail: How a Center of Excellence Can Boost Automation Benefits.

If you have been thinking about getting married, are married, or have been married, you may be surprised to discover that some of the steps for preparing for a marital partnership are not that different from getting ready for the cloud. Seriously. Think about it. Before calling the caterers or setting a date for your bachelor party or wedding shower, you must consider some of the same types of issues you’d explore before taking your relationship with the cloud to the next level. Here are some potential questions to discuss before you tie the knot with your cloud service provider — or your future spouse:

1.Will you get what you want out of this relationship?

2.What should each of you be responsible for managing and how well can this be managed?

3.Do you have adequate resources for success?

4.Who is paying for what?

5.Can you communicate effectively together, rather than always working in silos?

6.What kind of flexibility do you expect?

Once you answer these questions, the future of the relationship will become much clearer — whether you and your partner are ready to celebrate a new life together, or whether you are ready to help your business become more flexible and competitive through cloud computing. To find out more details about the ideal cloud relationship, be sure to read this white paper by Lilac Schoenbeck entitled, “Requirements for a Successful Cloud.”To learn more about your personal relationships, talk to a marriage professional.

On Valentine’s Day you may be doing some last-minute shopping to pick up flowers, cards, chocolate, and other tokens of appreciation. Yes, this day gives you yet another chance to make up for something you might have forgotten to give or do since the December holidays. You may even write a sentimental letter or go out for a nice dinner. Or, you might just treat yourself to something special.

But have you forgotten to pay attention to another important relationship? You know what I’m talking about – the relationship between you and the cloud. After all, if clouds had feelings they’d want some recognition on this special day. They play an important role in the success of the IT and business relationship. So, with this in mind, think about what your cloud would say (if clouds could talk) when asked about its relationship with you. The cloud would respond with something like, “I adapted to your needs. I saved you money. I was always there for you.”

When you were told to improve your SLAs, who stepped in to save the day? When your data center was consolidated to reduce costs and there was no extra room left in your facility, who provided all the IT-related comforts of home? Finally, when you needed someone who could understand your requirements as your business changed, who was ready to support you at a moment’s notice? It was your cloud, that’s who.

Okay. I’m not asking you to write a love letter to the cloud, but just take a few moments and reflect on what the cloud means to you. The next time you send a service to the cloud, think about what that means. You can’t personally thank the cloud, but you can always enjoy some chocolate in its honor.

After finishing up that last piece of fudge, devouring stuffing, and consuming all of the other goodies from the holidays, I started to think about New Year’s resolutions and how my life would change in January. I have big plans to cut back on calories, exercise more, and come up with a home filing system that is much more effective than sometimes shoving items in drawers just because those were the only places left with room in which to put those things.

When it comes to resolutions, I’m sure I am not alone. Just take a look how crowded health clubs are each January. In fact, losing weight and improving fitness rank among the top resolutions that people make each year. And if they need extra help in meeting their goals, some people hire personal trainers. Other popular resolutions include spending less money after the sticker shock of those holiday credit cards sets in. But what about IT resolutions? Here are some to consider:

1. Plan for the cloud.

It’s important to understand why you are moving to the cloud, so think about the business objective you want to achieve before you finalize your planning process. Some of the actions you may want think about include making sure you have a single-sign-on architecture that can be easily replicated for both “on-premise” and “off-premise” applications. You should also be able to procure infrastructure capacity in advance of demand and be able to routinely monitor and manage how you utilize existing assets.

2. Reduce IT costs.

Look for more ways to automate various processes that had been done manually. Identify how using the cloud will help your organization reduce costs through standardization and by maintaining fewer resources. Put more focus on Business Service Management, which can help you reduce costs by simplifying and automating processes across distributed, mainframe, and cloud environment. This lets you prioritize work based on business needs.

3. Get help when you need it.

Cloud implementations, in particular, are done in phases. Leverage the expertise of global services consultants familiar with three key phases: cloud service design, cloud operations definition, and cloud process business planning. These steps involve doing an audit to identify the infrastructure and application dependencies, and other actions you need to take. These experts can help you reach your objectives faster and more effectively.

4. Strengthen your focus on best practices.

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) best practices offer guidance for success with IT service management. Use software or SaaS models with built-in best practices based on ITIL.

5. Think SaaS first.

If you haven’t been thinking about taking a SaaS-first approach for application portfolio management, now is the time to consider it. The SaaS vendor is responsible for building hosting, operating, and maintaining the SaaS products. This can enable you to reduce the size of your data center and achieve savings in many areas.

I’m sure I can think of many more resolutions, but I’ve gotta’ grab that extra slice of pizza before the new year begins. In the meantime, here are some BMC thought leadership articles from experts that cover the resolutions discussed here in more detail: